14. The City of Snow

14. The City of Snow

Tania had only ever heard about this city, one where snow fell for most of the year. She’d never once expected to see it in person.

She pressed her hand against the car window as they drove in, watching the white rooftops pass by. Despite everything, something in her chest eased at the sight of it.

Caleb wasn’t here for business, not really. He’d mentioned, almost in passing, that his grandfather lived here. That was the real reason.

He dropped her off at a condo with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, ate a quick meal the caretaker had prepared, and stood to leave almost immediately.

“Where are you going?” Tania asked.

He didn’t answer. He just scoffed and walked out the door.

 

• • •

 

The caretaker, an older woman named Greta, kept glancing at Tania with concern over the following days.

“Are you feeling alright, dear?”

“I’m fine,” Tania said, though the cold had settled into her bones in a way that felt wrong. She hadn’t known, until this trip, that her body reacted badly to ice.

She finished a new set of designs and sent them off, then decided to take a short walk while Greta went out for groceries.

The snow outside was untouched, bright under a pale sun. Tania walked further than she meant to, her thoughts drifting to her mother, to Caleb’s parents, to whatever tangled thread connected all of them together.

She didn’t see the edge of the covered pool until her foot broke through it.

The world went cold and dark all at once.

 

• • •

 

Caleb came home to an empty condo and Greta wringing her hands by the door.

“She went for a walk, sir. She hasn’t come back.”

His first thought was that she’d run again. He called his men anyway, already moving toward the balcony to scan the grounds.

Something red caught his eye near the far tree line. Her scarf, half-buried in the snow.

He was outside before he’d fully registered moving, following a trail of footprints that grew more uneven with every step, until they stopped completely at the edge of the covered pool.

He dug through the snow with his bare hands until he found her.

Frozen. Unconscious. Barely breathing.

 

• • •

 

Caleb carried her inside and filled the tub with warm water, lowering her into it with a kind of care he hadn’t shown her in months. His mind kept flashing back to another fire, another rescue, years ago, in a burning hall neither of them had ever fully talked about since.

He called the doctor while she was still unconscious, and sat beside the tub studying her face, pale and hollow in a way that unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.

The doctor arrived quickly and recommended the hospital without hesitation.

It was there, hours later, running routine bloodwork alongside the treatment for hypothermia, that the results came back.

Tania was pregnant.

 

• • •

 

Tania woke to the sound of the doctor speaking quietly with Caleb in the hallway. She caught the tail end of it, something about her heart condition, and pushed herself upright fast enough to make her head spin.

“That’s enough,” she said, cutting the doctor off before he could say more. “Thank you, doctor. I’ll take it from here.”

The doctor excused himself. Caleb stood frozen in the doorway, staring at her like he was trying to work out a math problem that refused to add up.

“Pregnant,” he said finally.

Tania didn’t answer.

Something shifted behind his eyes, and whatever brief softness had been there a moment ago hardened over completely.

“Good one, Tania.” His voice had gone flat and mocking. “Falling pregnant too, just to earn my sympathy. You really don’t run out of tricks, do you?”